Close Encounters
by Dolores Storey
Summary: Slight AU in which no one knows about STEM. Kidman is given a folder about a mysterious man only labeled as RUVIK. Soon everything goes downhill as the trio is pulled into an unknown world with a thousand questions and little answers.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: The Folder**

"Come on you can't wear jeans _every day,_ Juli!" Whined one of Juli's close acquaintances. Kidman never had any "friends" but to keep her appearance in society somewhat normal she allowed random people to enter her life. Alice Mathers was one of them. She was girly with bright eyes and red hair. She was annoying but always had time to spend with friends. She had a boyfriend and worked at a perfume counter and her favorite word in the entire world was "like."

"Like, how about this?" Alice pulled out a short blue summer dress buried in the depths of Kidman's closet. Juli scowled and snatched it from her hand. "Fine." She muttered, going to her bathroom to change.

"You're going to look beautiful!" Alice called out in a singsong voice.

Alice had the day planned; she, Megan, and Juli would go to the farmer's market until noon and then shopping downtown and then to the bar! Yay!

So onto their adventure they went. Kidman walked far behind the other girls as they shopped for random fruits and vegetables. She never really liked crowds and this situation was no different. People barged through, pushing her around the maze of carts and tents.

Suddenly someone hit her harder than anyone else and she fell onto the ground. Kidman whipped around and grabbed the woman's hand. She turned around gently and stared at Juli. She had long brown hair with big glasses and what seemed like a vintage nurse's costume. Her dark eyes were like a prison keeping Kidman in her place. The nurse shuffled blindly through a leather purse before pulling out a large manila folder and holding it out to Kidman. "You know what this means, Juli Kidman." She said, pushing it into Juli's hand. Before she could say anything the nurse disappeared. Into the hundreds and thousands of other people.

Kidman was left with her bare ass on the pavement as this alien of a folder sat on the splayed blue gingham of her sundress. "Hey there!" said an old man in a cheerful voice. She looked up, pushing away her bangs to see the man at his stand of apples, "You looking for a shady place?" He asked. "Go ahead and camp out here for a minute, you're sweating more than a whore in church little lady!" Juli merely nodded before looking back down at the folder. He quickly checked behind her to make sure the old man wasn't spying and then opened the cover.

It was a case record. A young man stood in a picture covered in gashes and burn scars. The sight was sickening. How could this guy still be alive enough to take a picture – especially to appear to seem so painless in the image.

The only name given was in bold print just below the picture. **Ruvik.** The information was scarce.

 _Rukik_

 _Age: 37_

 _Status: Aware_

 _Family: None._

 _Sex: Male  
Height: 178 cm_

 _Weight: 71 kg_

 _Assumed to be armed and dangerous. Creator of S.T.E.M._

Kidman turned the page to another record. This picture stared a pretty young woman with long black hair and a youthful smile.

 _Laura Victoriano_

 _Age: 17_

 _Status: Deceased  
Family: Deceased  
Sex: Female_

 _Height: 167 cm_

 _Weight: 46 kg_

 _Dangerous. Working with Ruvik, however there are reasons to believe she is a double agent._

What kind of nonsense was this? Some kind of joke? Kidman scoffed, this had to be some game of Alice's with her role-play games. Juli was about to throw away the dumb idea when a name caught her eye as she flipped to the next page.

 _Juli Kidman_

 _Age: 27_

 _Status: Unknown  
Family: None._

 _Sex: Female_

 _Height: 175 cm_

 _Weight: 56 kg_

What the hell? What were these records? They included her work with KCPD. With Mobius. This _wasn't_ a game. Neither were the other pages. Detailed documents on Juli's co-workers, Sebastian and Joseph. What was this?

"Hey, Jules! What are you doing?" Alice suddenly appeared out of no where,

"That's not work stuff is it? What did I say? It's your day off, no working!"

"I'm sorry, listen this is important." Juli stood to her feet, "I need to go, I'll make it up to you but this is really, really important." Alice understood and hugged goodbye before Kidman dashed to a cab. Her destination was downtown to a famous hotel was. Sebastian and Joseph were conducting some pointless investigation and were staying a few nights there.

Juli got out of the cab before the car even came to a full stop. She dashed through elevators and halls until the arrived at the room. She pounded her fist on room 402 until it swung open. It was Joseph who stood there with a confused look on his face as he adjusted his glasses.

"Is everything alright, Kidman?" he asked as she barged in.

"No, no you two need to look at this." Juli spread the files over the desk and waited for the men to come look.

Sebastian shrugged as he sipped from his flask. "What are these? Records?"

"I'm not understanding." Said Joseph, "What is so important about what – medical records of some sort?" He sat down a mug of coffee and took his own file in his hand.

Kidman looked to him, waiting for his reaction. Joseph's brows furrowed as he peered closer at the document. "Where did you get these? There's information in here that should be and –" he turned the document towards the others, "What does 'Status: Unknowing' mean?"

Kidman described how she came along the file and how the situation didn't sit right with her.

"Well it explains the dress." Sebastian chuckled but he only received a dirty look. "Sounds like a prank," he continued, "I mean look at this guy, Ruvik? He looks like a Halloween costume."

Juli crossed her arms over her chest, "No. You have to believe me, this is serious – I just know it." Joseph seemed more keen to agree that something was definitely off about the situation. He mentioned that this Ruvik fellow looked too realistic to be a Halloween joke, and besides – it was May, not October.

"Okay, so let's say this isn't a joke," Sebastian sighed, looking at Ruvik's document, "then what do we do about it? There's no case."

"Seb…" Muttered Joseph, "Look at your file." He handed it over to his partner. From the second Sebastian read the first few lines his face went pale. There was strange information and then to top it off, detailed information about his family… about Lily. What the hell was this?

Juli strolled over to the window and held a file to it.

"Ruvik.

Age: 37  
Status: Creator."

"Creator?" Asked Joseph, stepping behind her, "Creator of what? Why are all of our 'statuses' unknown? I don't understand any of this-" Suddenly the building shook and a huge boom crashed through the room.

Kidman and Joseph were thrown forward against the window, having it crack against her head. She winced and tried to see through the new-found smoke and debris. Through the ash and clouds something in the distance caught her foggy vision. A man, dressed in rags of white. Was that…?

"Kidman! Joseph!" Sebastian ran to their side through the heavy smoke. He was able to make out Joseph, whom seemed alright besides a few scratches but it soon appeared that it was Kidman that needed help.

She stood back and immediately fell on the floor. "Shit," Said Sebastian, "She's bleeding. Joe, call for help." However Joseph was already at his cell phone.

"Did you see him?" Slurred Juli, eyes fluttering as she tried to focus on the window. "That's a lot of blood…"

Sebastian gently slapped her cheek, "Hey, stay awake, help is on the way." Kidman found strength to lift her heavy arm to the window where her blood stuck files to the glass.

"It was him. He set off a… bomb or something." A high pierced ring screamed through the room.

"Fuck! What is that?" Sebastian swore, clamping the hand not around Kidman over his ear.

"Must be an alarm." Groaned Joseph, in clear pain from the sound, "Or something from the aftermath?"

Juli pushed herself from Sebastian's grasp and rushed back to the window. She rubbed the blood smear from the glass and looked outside. The man she saw was gone now, replaced with corpses and flames.


	2. Chapter 2: Distaste

**Chapter Two: Distaste**

It had been two days since the explosion. The trio was diagnosed only with minor bruises and cuts. However, the true issues were not found on their bodies, but in the world around them. Somehow, the public believed this attack was led by the police themselves; claiming it to be severe police brutality. They had learned the hotel was under watch by nearly a dozen detectives and policeman and their imaginations carried from there.

Agents kept the homes of the trio under close guard, making sure an attack from the people couldn't happen. They were under disguise wherever they went and have someone watching them like baby sitters.

It was nearly impossible to sleep with dozens of cops talking outside. Kidman was nearly infantile as she was curled under the blankets, begging her mind to fall asleep. Every noise would make her jump and she found herself using the pistol on her nightstand as a vocal point as she tried to rest.

The moment she finally felt her lids become heavy and sleep nearing her body a creak of her floorboards threw her back into consciousness. She jumped to sit up, grapping her gun and looked around her room for whatever made the noise. She knew it couldn't possibly be her cat, the sound was far to loud for a kitten's paws on hardwood. And she was right.

In the corner of her room as a figure. Kidman kept her room fairly dark and so she couldn't make out whom the figure belonged to. Without moving her eyes from the form, she waved her hand around before turning on her lamp.

It was the nurse from the other day. She was still dressed in the same costume, the same bored – almost inhuman expression on her face.

" _You!_ " Gasped Juli, "How the hell did you get in here?"

"That doesn't matter." Said the smooth, sultry voice. She didn't seem concerned at all by the gun pointed directly at her. In fact she neared the bed even more. "My name is Tatiana Gutierrez. I worked for Mobius. Now I'm here to help you."

" _Used_ to work? W-"

"Don't ask me any questions now, Juli Kidman. Meet me at the Radisson hotel. Joseph Oda and Sebastian Castellanos have already been given these directions. If you want answers? Meet me there, room 1012 at 9pm tomorrow. No excuses. This is your first and last chance." Tatiana turned and walked out of the door.

"Hey! Hey get back here!" Kidman threw off the covers and rushed after her, but when she ran into the hall outside her bedroom, no one was there.

Using a dark blonde wig and a pencil skirt, Kidman was able to walk Krimson City in disguise, but kept her real clothes and weapons in an oversized handbag. Outside of the Radisson was another rally of protesters marching around the building with large signs. Kidman kept her mouth zipped as she moved past the crowd and entered the busy lobby of the hotel.

"Kid!" She looked over to the corner of the room where Sebastian and Joseph sat on tall red chairs. Seb looked far more casually dressed than Juli had ever seen him but Joseph still looked professional as always. There would be nothing he could do at this point in his life to look anything other than a detective or maybe a lawyer.

"First a sun dress, now… a skirt?" Sebastian chuckled as he stood up, "At least you look nice with long hair."

"I'm – we're – not here for small talk." Joseph pushed his glasses higher on his nose. "So Kid, it seems you were correct about that nurse. What do you think she wants us here for?"

"Well what did she tell you?"

This time Sebastian spoke up, "And I quote 'you have questions, I have answers meet me' at this hotel. I can already tell you I hate this idea." He patted his jacket, "I brought guns."

" _Guns_? Plural?" Joseph question, raising his brows.

"Two on each side."

Joseph merely shook his head.

"Well don't judge Jo, I brought a few things too."

"Violence is always your first option." He rolled his eyes. "Can we get on with this?" The two agreed and the trio journeyed to the tenth floor via the elevator.

With a quick knock on 1012's maple door the group waited for what seemed like forever before it opened. Tatiana wasn't dressed in her traditional garb. Her hair was down and she wore jeans and a button down, but still kept her red sweater. She didn't speak as she waved them inside.

The room was lit, but all the windows were shut and covered. The television was turned around facing the wall. The single bed was properly made as if it had never been touched.

"Sit." Tatiana demanded as she took her own spot on the bed. The trio sat down in uncomfortable patterned chairs facing the nurse. She sat a little to straight at the end of the bed and seemed to stare directly into their souls.

"Your disguise looks like shit." She growled at Kidman. Juli glared back and pulled off her wig.

"Ok, let's cut the shit." Sebastian grit his teeth, "Why did you bring us here? And how did you get in our homes?"

Tatiana suddenly stood, walked to the windows and shoved the blinds open. "You saw him during the explosion, yes?" She turned her head to him. "The man with burns and scars."

"Ruvik." Kidman muttered.

"That guy is real?" Remarked Seb, "What? Did he cause that explosion?"

She sighed and shook her head. "What is I told you that explosion wasn't real?"

"I'd call bullshit. Fifty people died." Joseph barked, "And over one-hundred were injured!"

"Juli Kidman, you say Ruvik during the explosion, completely unharmed, yes? What do you think he was doing there?"

"Okay, what are you trying to get at?" Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest.

"STEM. We are all inside of it. Some by choice," she raised a brow to them, "Some not. Did you hear a high pinched siren after the explosion? It's a certain frequency that basically powers up STEM. This is all Ruvik's mind. Believe me or not, that is to you, however the fact of the matter is we are trapped here. Our minds are all connected with his. It is up to you if you want to control this world, or if you want to be controlled."

The trio looked to each other, as if to ask if someone understood what had just been spoken. Kidman sighed, her mind filled her mind and when she looked to Tatiana to ask them she… was gone.

"What the _fuck._ " Sebastian yelled, leaping from the chair.

"Don't question is." Kidman stood from her seat, "You'll just add to the questions we have, and the answers we don't."


End file.
